This is another recipe I stumbled upon a couple of years ago via Pinterest when we were gifted a pile of lemons. I have two particular friends who are very keen recipients every time and so I cannot make them for one without saving a couple for the other. This past weekend my lovely Peruvian friend asked me to make these for the parents to enjoy at her son's 2nd birthday party - who was I to turn down such a request! It is a fairly simple recipe - only 5 ingredients - but I'm not going to lie, it has occasionally gone wrong when I've either added too much lemon juice or overheated the cream or chocolate. Just concentrate on what you're doing and perhaps make them when you've not got kids running around your legs - this tends to be when things fall to pieces for me! The original recipe doesn't include lemon curd so feel free to omit this if you like, but Simon loves making it (recipe to follow) and it gives the truffles an extra little something.

Remove from heat and add the chocolate at once, whisking vigorously until the chocolate is melted and you get a thick, smooth and silky mixture.

Add the juice and lemon curd, mix well, transfer the mixture to a glass bowl and cover with plastic wrap/cling film. Refrigerate until firm enough to form balls - I let it sit in the fridge overnight.

Scoop out rounded mounds of the mixture (while it’s still cold and firm) and form balls – you don’t want your truffles to be perfectly rounded. Roll the truffles in sifted icing sugar or cocoa powder and place in small fluted paper cases or on a plate. Keep refrigerated until serving to delighted guests.

This was one of the first recipes I wanted to trial when I decided on lemons for August. I'd seen a few scrummy looking pictures on Pinterest and so read various recipes. Most of them didn't use white chocolate however and I couldn't quite make peace with the notion of blondies (basically white chocolate versions of brownies) without chocolate in them. For years I have made the most delicious Christmas Pudding Blondies for New Year's Eve with leftover Christmas Pudding, and I think my family would be a little disappointed if I decided not to do them one year! I always get requests for them and have shared the recipe with numerous people who now do the same (I think it originally came from a Sainsbury's magazine - it's cut out in my Christmas folder so I will try to track down the exact origin and share it later in the year). The recipe as follows was slightly adapted from a plain lemon one I found and my Christmas recipe, and adjusted for the fact it needed to be gluten free. It could have been a disaster - hey that's what experimentation is all about - but was a surprising runaway success, literally! Within 12 hours there was nothing left and the girls are keen to help whip up another batch this weekend...

Before you get started on the mixture, preheat the oven to 170 degrees and line an 8x8 inch brownie pan with baking paper. Then...

Melt the chocolate with the butter. You can use a bain marie, but I have adopted the lazy girls microwave method as I find it much less stressful with kids and no boiling water & hot pans to worry about. Put the chocolate and butter in your jug or bowl, cover and heat for a minute in the microwave at 80% heat. After the first minute I tend to go in 30 second intervals till it's almost melted, then just mix it all together till it fully melts.

Add the sugar and stir then leave to cool slightly (if you don’t do this you may end up with scrambled egg brownies).

Whilst this is cooling whisk the two eggs together with the lemon zest & juice.

Once the mixture has cooled slightly, beat in the eggs and lemon.

Fold in the flour and salt and give a good mix till everything is well combined.

Pour into your cake tin and bake for 25 - 30 minutes till it is a nice golden colour and still a tiny bit soft in the middle. This will set as it cools and make it all the more delicious.

Leave to cool in the tin before transferring to a wire rack. Whilst it is cooling make the glaze by sifting the icing sugar together with the lemon zest and juice.

Once the cake is cool spread the glaze over - you can let it soak in and set a little before giving a second coating. Cut up into your desired size pieces, dust with a little extra icing sugar and enjoy - preferably with very good friends who will love you for it!

Join me on Instagram!

Lovely Lyrics ...

"If the world was mine, I'd tell you what I'd do, I'd wrap the world in ribbons and then give it all to you. I'd teach the birds such lovely words and make 'em sing for you. I'd put the stars right in a jar and give them all to you." - Melody Gardot